Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

Tim Mayer Swings Out

Straight No Chaser is the place for jazz lovers (and those who will soon be jazz lovers) to enjoy podcasts with their favorite music and artists. Winner of the 2017 JazzTimes Readers' Poll for Best Podcast, your host Jeffrey Siegel will take you inside the world of jazz, from the new releases to the best festiva;s to remembrances of jazz legends.

Resilience is the property of a material to
absorb energy when it is deformed elastically and then, upon
unloading to have this energy recovered – Wikipedia
definition.

Following that somewhat dense explanation above, Tim Mayer’s
Resilence serves as a good example of what happens when a
talented young musician absorbs his influences and then, with the
help of other talent, woodsheds top material and releases it on the
jazz world. This is good stuff.

Mayer has wisely put together a top band and top material for
this release. The CD features a basic quartet of Mayer on tenor
sax, George Cables on piano, Dezron Douglas
on bass, and Willie JonesIIIon drums, supplemented by ace players like
Claudio Roditi and Dominick Farinacci on trumpet, Mark Whitfield on
guitar, and Michael Dease on trombone. Dease is particularly
memorable on “For Miles”, the swinging opening tune he also
wrote.

A classic repertoire dominates the tunes,
ranging from Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, and Fats Navarro
compositions, to a Great American Songbook
selection by Jule Styne (“I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry”),
to compositions by Mayer and collaborator Cables. Mayer is an
expressive player, able to let loose on tunes like “Fire &
Ice”, and swing in a classic straight ahead manner on Navarro’s
“Dance of the Infidels” and Morgan’s “Blue
Lace”.

If there is nothing ground breaking or
earthshaking here, that’s just fine. This is an album for those who
like their sax straight, no chaser, and brings Tim Mayer to the
forefront of today’s young players.